Former Hill-Murray football coach makes public apology after prostitution charges

WOODBURY, Minn. - The former Hill-Murray head football coach is apologizing after he was arrested in a prostitution sting in February.

Prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charges against 54-year-old Mark Mauer this week, but he does have to take a class on sex trafficking and pay the court fees.

"I made a bad decision and I will have to live with it for the rest of my life," said Mauer.

It was in February when Fridley police arrested Mauer and several other people during a prostitution sting at a local hotel.

When asked if he was going to the hotel to have sex, he said, "Without a doubt, my intent was to meet this gal and to be in the room. Without a doubt my intentions were exactly that."

That woman, who he met online turned out to be a police officer. But Mauer tells KARE 11 after about three minutes in the hotel room, he changed his mind, adding that he never gave the woman money.

"I look at it as I got to the edge and something inside of me knew this was wrong and I walked. Does it justify my complete actions, absolutely not," he said.

He called the decision to go to the hotel, "poor judgment " and "temptation."

That temptation cost him his job as the head football coach at Hill-Murray and not to mention what it did to his marriage of three decades, which he says he's working to repair.

"I hurt a lot of people, especially my wife and kids. It's been a tough situation," he said. "She's a wonderful woman and I need to take the necessary steps that I prove to her that we have a good marriage. And that we can work through this."

Although the police report alleged he told officers he had done this sort of thing before but never followed through with it, Mauer said that's not true.

"I don't know where or how that came about, because I never have done this before," he said.

"All the people up at Hill Murray that I caused harm to, those are great people, those are phenomenal coworkers," he added.

And while he repairs his personal life, he also hopes to one day coach again.

"I brought this upon myself. I deserve everything that's come my way, but I will recover from it," he said.

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